“Dogs sniff out scents, we dig.” From the Hotel Rigopiano with the Cnsas dogs (two people pulled out alive thanks to them) to search missions during disasters, accidents and attacks, the role of our four-legged friends is fundamental. And it is built on attentiveness, play, friendship, loyalty.
Dogs sniff out the scents, then firefighters and operators must do the digging. "Since 19 January we have been working in difficult conditions searching for survivors in the area of Hotel Rigopiano. The dogs often pick up scents but we have to dig for more than 4, 5 metres before we reach the ground," declared Matteo Gasparini of the Valdossola mountain rescue service, deployed at the hotel that was engulfed by a snow avalanche.
It is the story of these hours, of these days, in Piedmont. Working alongside the technicians from the Valdossola delegation are those from Canavese, Cuneo, Mondovì, Valsusa and Valsangone.
Walter Milan, coordinator of the Cnsas (the alpine and speleological rescue service, deployed at the scene of the tragedy) told Radio 24: "The dogs led the rescuers straight to the two men pulled out alive in the very first moments, when our teams reached the front of the avalanche. And then, even for the dogs, it is quite difficult to operate given the specific nature of this avalanche, which is half snow, half debris, parts of a building. In any case, the dogs are certainly valuable aids for then directing the more organised probing carried out by humans."
They played at saving lives. Because for rubble dogs or avalanche dogs it is a game to find women, men and children buried still alive or, sometimes, sadly, already dead. They learn from puppyhood that they must not let themselves be distracted: the objective is to find the human being. "And not the fridge with food in it, or the dinner interrupted by the earthquake. From puppies we reward them when they find the decoy," Alessandro Libra of the Reaxel centre in Trofarello, of the Civil Protection Alpine Troops canine rescue unit, explained to La Stampa. The mechanism is the result of months of training with food rewards. "They ought to remember it always, not only when we march in parades after disasters and everyone applauds us. They ought to remember that these dogs save human lives."
It has been since the early twentieth century that the Red Cross has enlisted dogs, such as border collies, for support roles in rescue operations.
The deployment of dogs in search and rescue operations is often a key component in saving lives in the mountains, in hiking areas, in cases of missing persons, during natural disasters, mass casualty incidents, anti-drug operations, terrorist attacks and even in anti-poaching efforts (including in territories and conditions almost resembling warfare, as in the case of rhinoceroses).
The two basic elements are handlers and well-trained dogs. The starting point is their sense of smell. Despite the fact that the process is still under scientific investigation, it is known that dogs have an extraordinary ability to detect the scent of humans. Perhaps because each of us sheds around 40,000 skin cells per minute through perspiration, breathing, or bacterial emanations from the skin and tissues. The fact remains that they are able to smell us from hundreds of metres away.
Based on their training and experience, dogs can be classified as scent dogs or search dogs. They can also be categorised according to whether they are trained to discriminate specific scents — and therefore to seek out a particular substance — or to follow any scent presented to them, for example after being given a scent sample from a specific person. Dogs can be trained specifically for searches in rubble, in water, or in avalanche debris.
In 1974, the first cadaver dog was trained by the New York Police Department. Since then, cadaver dogs can be called upon either to search large areas for remains — for example around the sites of plane crashes — or to work in confined spaces, looking for clues at the scene of a murder. The breeds most commonly used in this field are beagles, bloodhounds, collies, German shepherds, golden retrievers, and Labradors. Cadaver dogs can achieve 100 per cent accuracy in distinguishing between human and animal remains.
Avalanche dogs work in a similar way, through their sense of smell, but they must be adept at moving quickly between wild terrain and locations with buildings or rubble, because by its very nature an avalanche covers everything indiscriminately. Breeds used include German shepherds, border collies, golden retrievers, schnauzers, and Belgian shepherds. The most skilled can detect people buried as much as four metres beneath the snow.
Every country, every police force and every organisation has developed the most appropriate training and conditioning methods, tailored also to the geographical areas in which the dogs are deployed.
There are many elements common to the various schools of training. It begins at a young age, from as early as 10-week-old puppies, followed by one to one and a half years of lessons alongside the trainer, and finally five to ten years of active service, depending on the roles and the individual animal's characteristics. Work focuses on:
The element of play is widely recognised as fundamental. It begins with simple games for puppies, based on a reward mechanism, and progresses to more complex challenges outdoors and more specialised games. This technique has long been used with retrieving and hunting dogs, but it is equally effective for modern missions. Techniques based on predatory, herding and pack instincts are also employed.
Since the common objective of many of these missions is to find something, choosing how to communicate with the dog is also of the utmost importance.
On this point, there are two schools of thought. One teaches the trainer to recognise the dog's non-verbal language at the moment of a find. The other requires the dog to be trained to perform an indication — some kind of gesture, such as barking, running back to the trainer, or touching them — actively signalling the outcome of the search.
In both cases, the handler must be capable of reading every type of behaviour exhibited by the dog in their charge: every movement, every signal. And, perhaps, the other way around too.
Yet another emblematic instance in which the bond between human and dog — a magnificent, age-old and mysterious relationship — fulfils a shared mission of coexistence, altruism and generosity.